


THE DEVIL

by Imandra_Pipkin



Series: Shadowhunter Tarot [11]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: F/M, Memories, Past Relationship(s), Season 2 episode 4 - Day of Wrath, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24238636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imandra_Pipkin/pseuds/Imandra_Pipkin
Summary: There is a time for everyone to decide. If you are immortal, you inevitably have to make decisions more often. But you also have more time to regret or question them.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Camille Belcourt
Series: Shadowhunter Tarot [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718071
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13
Collections: Shadowhunters Tarot Challenge





	THE DEVIL

**Author's Note:**

> Leaves fall in a peaceful autumn wood as the setting sun sends long shadows creeping across the forest floor. A snake, nearly camouflaged among the dead foliage, makes its way deeper into the trees.
> 
> Much like Death, the Devil is a card that most fear to face. It calls forth our deepest, darkest flaws and demands that we deal with them. It can be things that we have built ourselves on, grown with. They are our foundations, and they are not easily broken. The Devil can be toxic relationships or addiction, and it can be seductive. It is much easier to give in to things that feel good than it is to confront the horror lurking beneath the surface instead. Luckily, the Devil does not appear until you are ready to see it and take back control. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but prepare for a fight.

Magnus made sure that Raphael and Simon had left the loft and complied with his request to pick up various ingredients for extra fortification from Catarina. The warning, not to underestimate Camille’s strength, ultimately convinced Raphael and Simon to leave. 

For what he was about to do, he couldn't use company. What he needed to take care of now, he had to execute on his own. 

Partly because he didn't want to endanger anyone else. Partly because he didn't want an audience to what would inevitably come.

Nobody should know about this. Nobody should be able to witness his emotional ... challenge. 

Magnus dreaded that moment. For years, decades, a century. And he had known for just as long that this moment would come sometime. Inescapably.

But now he had to act, because it was his responsibility, somehow. He made it his responsibility.

Camille had never cared if her acts would break the Accords. 

For a long time he had closed both eyes, didn't want to see the truth. He could no longer afford this luxury.

Magnus took the small, open wooden box from the side table. Together with Simon, he got it from Camille’s residence in Agra. Raphael had been able to open this box with Simon's blood because Camille had sired him. 

Magnus had carefully made all arrangements to set up the trap. He knew he had to be careful,so he was well prepared. There was always a risk, though. 

He held the wonderfully crafted box in both hands and looked at Camille’s grave dirt. Magnus ran his fingers over it's surface.

"My dearest Camille." 

It wasn't that he still had feelings for Camille. But he couldn't say either that he no longer felt anything regarding Camille. Even though he had stated he gave up feeling anything for her over a century ago. They had history. Ancient history.

Camille was his sore point. Has always been. It no longer hurt to see her, he had been over that point for decades.

Magnus had thought hard about what he was going to do. He knew he was doing the right thing. Knowing, however, didn't make the deed easier.

He took a deep breath. Magnus scattered the grave dirt to summon Camille. 

Camille appeared instantly. 

Beautiful as always.

Annoyed as always.

"What the hell?"

"It's only me," Magnus reassured his ex lover, turning his back on her.

Camille relaxed. She knew that Magnus was no threat to her. Camille was curious as to why Magnus had summoned her. She was pleased that Magnus obviously wanted something from her. Contrary to his words, that he hadn't missed her for one hundred and thirty-eight years. Oddly that he had counted the years.

Camille cocked her head. With a confident smile she came a few steps closer. 

"Magnus."

But Magnus hadn't turned around to put the little box back on the side table.

Magnus reached into a flat bowl that he had placed there for this purpose.

"I'm so sorry."

He turned to face Camille and sprinkled a glittering powder on her. Seconds later she was trapped in a cage.

"Magnus, let me out of here!" she demanded angrily. 

Magnus' thoughts were racing. There was always a spark of doubt. But was there really still the possibility for changing his mind?

"Don't tell me you're doing the Clave's bidding because of your silly infatuation with that boy toy Shadowhunter." Camille rolled her eyes.

Magnus circled the cage. He turned to her, frowning.

"Leave Alec out of this. This is between you and me."

Magnus continued his restless hike while Camille conjured up old memories.

Magnus pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't want to hear any of this.

"Believe me, this wasn't an easy decision. But you crossed a line. I won't let Raphael suffer for your bad deeds."

Annoyed, Camille rolled her eyes again.

"So this is about one little insubordinate vamp?"

Magnus didn't know if Camille didn't want to understand him or simply couldn't understand what he was about. Camille's priorities have always been different from his. 

"You've sired hundreds of vampires. Your children. But as a warnock, I can have none. The Downworlders I take under my wing, they are my children."

Magnus' voice almost turned into a whisper.

"My family."

Magnus' insistent voice seemed to get through to her. Like a scolded child, Camille averted her gaze as Magnus continued.

"I'm sorry, Camille. I'll do whatever it takes to protect him," he said firmly and turned away.

Ragnor and he had practically raised Raphael. Seeing Raphael like this, injured, tortured, because of her, was decisive for his decision.

For Camille, people are not more than just toys for her amusement. She completely lacked the ability to build an emotional bond with others.

It had taken a long time for Magnus to admit this to himself. He had always believed that the depth of their love was mutual.

It was painful to realize that Camille had never taken their relationship seriously. For Camille, Magnus was her most amusing toy, the one that was the easiest to manipulate.

If Magnus thought Camille was reasonable, he was wrong. Camille had only considered how she could most effectively hit Magnus. She knew Magnus' weaknesses. Every single one and every topic that had never failed to affect Magnus. 

"The fear of loneliness has always been your Achilles' heel."

Magnus held out his hand to fend her words off. 

"Don't."

Camille knew with certainty how to turn a knife in an open wound.

"You don't do well loosing those you love, do you?"

Magnus swallowed. He thought of his mother, his oldest, dearest friend Ragnor, Etta, and all the others he had lost over the centuries, whose faces or names he couldn't remember anymore.

"I'm the only one you can count on to be here for you forever. You know that. That's why you love me and you always will. Choose... me."

It seemed like a repetition of her words the last time they met when he draw up a Writ of Transmutation at Camille’s request in exchange for The Book of the White after turning Simon into a vampire. 

"Love is fleeting," she then had claimed. "Even more so when you're immortal." 

"And yet true love cannot die." Magnus was thoroughly a romantic man.

"But people can." Camille’s words had had a hint of a threat. "Hundreds of years old and still so naive. You wouldn't know what to do with love if you found it."

But Camille was wrong about that, so very wrong. Magnus had found love. Surprisingly in a nephilim. What he had felt for Camille at that time was only a poor copy compared to what he now had with his Alexander.

At their last meeting Magnus had believed, as so often, that it would be their last encountage. "I thought I was done with you." 

But Camille's respond echoed still in his ears: "We'll never be done with each other."

Magnus no longer wanted to be manipulated by her. No, he no longer let her manipulate him.

Camille posed a great danger. Not just for him or his family. Magnus' decision was made, even if it wasn't easy for him.

"Enjoy Idris. I hear the weather's a delight."

Magnus opened a portal. He couldn't look Camille in the eye while doing so.

"How could you? I thought you loved me. Don't do this." Camille didn't plead, in her words sounded rather a lack of comprehension for his actions.

Now she was the cave's problem. She was no longer a threat for anyone while she was in Idris. Imprisoned in the Gard in Alicante she would be guarded even more heavily than in her coffin at the hotel Dumont.

Magnus panted when the portal closed behind Camille. Slowly he lowered his arm. 

Magnus, of course, had noticed that Camille had only ever assumed that Magnus loved her. Camille had never mentioned that she would love him or that she had loved him once. Not that it mattered now. It didn't make a difference now, nor would it change his mind.

Having to deal with Camille cut open old, scarred wounds.

For decades it hadn't occurred to him that Camille had disappeared to St. Petersburg to cheat on him with a mundane. Although Camille would never declare it to be cheating because in the end she came back to him after having some diverting fun. 

She demanded from Magnus to grant her some little dalliances. Fidelity would be a purely human concept. Since she wasn't human, Magnus couldn't expect her to adhere to any human morality. 

When Magnus found out that she was cheating on him, he had been waiting for her return, for her explanations, for her apologies.

But he didn't receive any of this. Camille had always been sure that Magnus was devoted to her and would be forevermore. 

That night Magnus realized that he would never mean anything to her, that she would never love him. Not the way he loved her.

The only thing left for him to do was to pretend that he had long since consoled Camille’s disappearance with the help of the hansom Will Herondale and to underpin this with a kiss. 

And so Magnus left. He didn't take anything with him. None of his belongings, not the precious ruby necklace he had given her.

Being upset by her dalliance with the short lived Russian was not the most appropriate description.

Their next encounter around 100 years later was again not a pleasant one. In the two years that Magnus had been in London, the New York vampires had changed a lot. It had taken a little while for Magnus to figure out why Camille and her vampires had completely lost control. The 1970s were an era of drugs and parties. The vampires drank from people to whom they had previously given drugs, which made them high and unpredictable themselves.

Magnus just barely prevented the Praeter Lupus from intervening after the vampires caused a bloodbath in a club. What Magnus had seen there, what condition he had seen Camille in, made him ask Catarina to erase his memories of Camille from this century. 

So she broke his heart for the second time. 

Magnus carefully closed the box with Camille’s grave dirt. He left everything else as it was. He didn't feel like cleaning up.

Magnus went into his living room. He desperately needed a drink. Or four. Maybe six. He didn't know. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to learn more about Magnus and Camille’s past: my sources are 'The Infernal Devices. Book Two. Clockwork Prince' and 'The Bane Chronicles'.
> 
> Kudos and comments make my day so don't be too shy about it. 😉  
> As always, if you find a mistake/typo or a phrase that sounds odd, please let me know. 
> 
> For suggestions and complaints you can find me at  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/Imandras)  
> or  
> [tumblr](https://imandras.tumblr.com)
> 
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> #Shadowhunters 💕


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